February 18, 2009

Sean Delonas NY Post Obama/Monkey Cartoon: Racist?

Personally my first reaction to this Sean Delonas Obama/Monkey cartoon is not even about racism, I'm just mad that he's making fun of the chimpanzee dying! He was that poor woman's only companion after her husband died, now she's all alone in the world after seeing her best chimp friend almost kill her best human friend, and then having to beg for him to get shot to death by the cops...WTF IS FUNNY ABOUT THAT DAMMIT? Especially when you're using it for such a lame, hacky joke.

An uproar is brewing about an editorial cartoon in today's New York Post that appears to tie President Obama to a rampaging chimpanzee killed by police.

The cartoon, by Sean Delonas, shows a chimp splayed on the ground in a pool of blood. Two police officers stand over the body, one holding a smoking gun, and the second saying, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill..."

...Sharpton notes that Obama is the nation's first black president and that African Americans have been depicted as monkeys by racists through history.

"Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama and has become synonymous with him, it is not a reach to wonder are they inferring that a monkey wrote the last bill?" he asked, according to press accounts.

Sam Stein wrote on the Obama-friendly Huffington Post website that it seems "rife with racial and political sensitivities."

"At its most benign, the cartoon suggests that the stimulus bill was so bad, monkeys may as well have written it," Stein opined. "Most provocatively, it compares the president to a rabid chimp. Either way, the incorporation of violence and (on a darker level) race into politics is bound to be controversial."

The Post is standing by the Sean Delonas cartoon, and questioning Sharpton's motives.

"The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut," editor-in-chief Col Allan said in a statement. "It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist."